What Remains
by Runi-chan
Summary: Ed and Al stand inside a burned down church...one in what seems to be a series of FMA fics I've been writing. Enjoy- and sorry that it's still sort of depressing.


Inspired by, of course, _Hagane_, and seeing what remained of a burnt out church near my grandmother's home. Enjoy, and as always, I own nothing.

A/N: I'm sorry that most of my _Hagane_ stuff has been downing; I should try to find the happier side of the show, ne? I will, and soon, write a happy Al piece (I hope), so hopefully that'll make up for my depressing-ness.

**Edited:** Hope it's a little better now!

* * *

From where Ed was standing, you wouldn't have seen what people were terming a devastation, a mockery, a sacralige. You couldn't see the trees behind it, and the road in front of it. 

You saw a door. You saw the sky and you saw the buildings on the other side of a broken window.

Ed sighed and shook his head. Al shifted feet in his armored body, the audible sound of metal groaning just behind the Fullmetal. He looked down at his own hand for a moment, watching and listening to the considerably softer noise of the automail. He tamped a foot on the ground. Still softer. He sighed and rested his flesh and bone hand on the door, tracing the grooves on the wood that was still warm from summer sun.

"Nii-san?"

Al's quiet inquiry woke the Fullmetal from his stupor, and the elder Elric stared up into what served as Al's eyes now; shining points of white-red light. Ed smiled slightly, and shook his head.

"Sorry, Al..didn't mean to zone out like that," he said, his voice soft still.Ed yawned, stretching his arms above his head before reaching down to touch his toes.

"Nii-san," Al prodded his brother's shoulder- lightly, so as not to hurt him-, "are we going to go in?"

"What? Oh...," the elder sighed, "I guess so."

Ed pushed the door open, aware of the creak of the hinges as it turned, revealing just what the locals were worked up about;

the inside of this building, this **church**, was almost completely destroyed. The roof was gone, the hymnals and Bibles burned away; the pews were scorched and looked as if they would break if so much as a bird landed on it. Ed absently ran his automail hand over the side of a pew. A chunk of the burned wood broke off in his hand, and he groaned, tossing it onto the seat of the unusable.

Ed strolled up the aisle, taking in the destruction; it was sad to see this, really. It was just a church; a God-fearing church full of good people, the locals said. The Fullmetal didn't know how seriously to take the claims; half because of his own disillusionment, and half because almost everyone in town attended the church.

"They say an alchemist did this," Al spoke, trying not to hit any of the pews.He reached for a hymnal, but since he would've run the risk of destroying a pew in the process of getting it, he decided against it, "so why did they not care if we came here or not?"

"Who knows?" Ed scoffed, resting next to the altar. He stood again and looked at the thin pages of the Bible, some scorched down to the binding. The Fullmetal shut the book and sighed. The eldest Elric rested a hand against one wall for a moment, before clapping his hands together and pressing them to the charred walls. A surge of familar blue light washed over the area, and the wall stood whole again, well-built as the day it was set up. Ed smiled.

"Hey!"

The smile dropped in favor of a look of confusion. The Fullmetal turned his head to see a girl; maybe as old as Al was...well, was happened to be the only word anyone would use; not even Ed knew if Al was aging in there, if when, and if, they could get him his body back, he'd be the same ten year old boy who'd 'dissapeared' that day. She held a shovel in one hand, and was looking at Ed with a face of some kind of shock.

"Why are you using alchemy in a church?" she sounded upset, but Ed decided that she had every right to. He ran a hand through his bangs and sighed.

"Trying to help," he replied, earning a startled look from Al, "the same as you, little girl"

The girl narrowed her eyes and turned the shovel spade side down.

"I'm fifteen, you dimwitted midget"

Ed nearly snapped, but one look at the position of the moon convinced him of better. He settled for rolling his eyes.

"Haha. Funny; it's so original. Why are you out here in the dead of night, with a shovel, no less?"

The girl picked up the shovel and set it back down on an angle, lazily pushing it towards Ed.

"Because I wanted to help...," she muttered, then picked the shovel up and slung it over her shoulder.

"But I guess you got it now...," the girl shrugged and shook her head, "just don't let anyone else see you using alchemy here...," she turned and began to leave, "or you'll never be able to get out of here."

And then the girl was gone. Ed shook his head.

"What a weirdo..."

"Ed."

Al's voice was soft again; he had a habit of being timid and shy. The Elder Elric turned around.

"What is it, Al?"

The younger brother shuffled his feet, and looked at the sky.

"Why did you say we would help?"

"What do you mean?"

"You hate church," the younger looked at the older, "and I'd think you'd say something like, 'this is their problem, they can deal with it'."

Ed leaned down and picked up a piece of wood that the fire had turned to charcol.

"I want to help, because," Ed shed his coat and rubbed his hands together, "they didn't deserve this. We might have deserved our punishment; but they were just prey to a passing cat"

"But still...they could get something back from this..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Al's voice was timid again, "they rebuild, and grow closer," he paused, "like we have..."

Ed didn't respond, just stared sadly at the horizon. Al sighed, and reached a hand toward the sky. He brought it back down and let it rest at his side.

"I miss it, Ed...being able to feel."

"I know you do," Ed's voice was nearly a whisper, "and I promise, I will get it back. My arm and leg don't matter, what matters," he rested his head against the metal suit containing his brother's soul, "is that you're able to feel again. That you get your body back, Al"

"It hurts me, brother..."

"I know it hurts you,Al, and that hurts me too..."

The two brothers stood in silence, watching the sun rise, slowly stretching across the remains of a burned down church; obstructed only by the belltower, which hadn't been touched by the flames.


End file.
